System and method for direct response advertising

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods to provide a response to advertising determine and/or obtain a commercial good that is related to an advertisement presented to a user, and further determine and/or obtain a commercial source for that commercial good. Information regarding the particular commercial good and/or the corresponding commercial source is presented to the user, for example using a graphical user interface. The user may subsequently be able to buy the commercial good from the commercial source.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/678,888 filed Apr. 3, 2015, and is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/698,429, filed Apr. 28, 2015, both ofwhich claim the benefit of U.S. App. No. 62/112,316, filed Feb. 5, 2015,all of which are incorporated by reference of all purposes.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The disclosure relates to systems and methods for guiding a userresponse to advertising for goods and/or services and, in particular,presenting a user interface to a user on a client computing platformthat provides information about and/or offers to sell the advertisedgoods and/or services.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Users can access online services, applications, and web pages via theinternet, for example through client computing platforms. Informationfrom televisions, radios, computers, and/or other presentation devicesand/or sound-producing devices may be presented to users. Suchinformation may include advertisements for goods and/or services. Onlineservices, web pages, and/or applications may include information aboutgoods and/or services. Online services, web pages, and/or applicationsmay provide the ability for users to purchase goods and/or services.Information may be presented to client computing platforms that areconnected to the internet. Using a browser software application topresent a web page and/or other information on a client computingplatform is known. Hosting information, for example informationorganized in a database, through a server is known. A server may accessanother server in the process of presenting information to a clientcomputing platform.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One aspect of the disclosure relates to systems configured to provideand/or respond to advertising, and/or to guide a user response toadvertising. The system may facilitate interaction between users andservice providers, online services, servers (including but not limitedto search servers, ad servers, demand-side platforms, and/or otherservers), commercial sources, public and/or commercial databases,external resources, third-party ad-brokers, third-party platforms,demand-side platforms, and/or other entities, which may collectively bereferred to as commercial providers. The system may facilitateinteraction between different commercial providers. The system and/orany entities that interact with the system may be deployed using a(public) network and/or using commercial web services. The system mayfacilitate interaction involving users, for example through clientcomputing platforms (also referred to herein as computing devices).

Advertising may become increasingly valuable and/or effective if users'effort to respond to an advertisement, e.g. through a purchase, isreduced. Advertising may become increasingly valuable and/or effectiveif it is tailored to its intended audience. Advertising may becomeincreasingly valuable and/or effective if the advertised goods and/orservices are likely to meet a demand or need of its intended audience.Advertising may be either off-line (e.g. through paper mail), broadcast(e.g. through radio or television), or online, e.g. delivered as(digital) content to client computing platforms. Different kinds ormodalities of advertising may have different kinds of characteristicsand qualities, such that common techniques in one context may not beavailable or practicable in another context, and/or may be refined orchanged for increased value to advertisers in another context ormodality.

Advertising may be improved if detailed information regarding theintended audience is available. For example, the system may be able todetermine (e.g. based on information about a particular computingdevice's connectivity with servers) a geographical area that has thehighest likelihood of coinciding with the location of a particularcomputing device, and thus its associated user. For example, thegeographical area may coincide with a town, city, and/or community. Forexample, a website may be able to gather information associated with aparticular computing device, including but not limited to a zip code,time zone, preferred language, latitude information, longitudeinformation, global positioning system (GPS) information, UniversalTransverse Mercator (UTM) information, and/or other user-specific and/ordevice-specific information. Such information may be stated by a userand/or derived in other ways.

By virtue of the functionality described in this disclosure, users mayeasily and quickly respond to advertising presented to users, inproximity of users, and/or in proximity of client computing platformsassociated with users. In some embodiments, the client computingplatforms may capture and/or receive information (including but notlimited to audio, video, text, animation, images, and/or combinationsthereof). In some embodiments, the client computing platforms obtainand/or determine an advertisement for a commercial good based on thisinformation. As used herein, the term “commercial good” may include anygoods, services, and/or combinations thereof that may be exchangedand/or provided in exchange for value.

In some embodiments, the client computing platforms may obtain and/ordetermine a commercial source for the commercial good. Commercialsources may provide information related to commercial goods, informationrelated to offers to sell commercial goods, and/or offers to sellcommercial goods. By way of non-limiting example, a commercial sourcemay be a retailer, online retailer, store, warehouse, commercialwebsite, service provider, and/or other entity offering commercial goodsfor sale and/or for other types of exchange of value.

In some embodiments, the client computing platforms may provide theability for users to purchase the commercial good. Any functionalityattributed in this disclosure to client computing platforms may beperformed by multiple client computing platforms operating incoordination, by the system described in this disclosure and/or anycomponent thereof, by one or more servers, and/or any combinationthereof (e.g., “in the cloud”, and/or other virtualized processingsolutions).

As used herein, the term “determine” (and derivatives thereof) mayinclude measure, calculate, compute, estimate, approximate, generate,and/or otherwise derive, and/or any combination thereof. As used herein,the term “obtain” (and derivatives thereof) may include active and/orpassive retrieval, determination, derivation, transfer, upload,download, submission, and/or exchange of information, and/or anycombination thereof.

Through the functionality of the system described in this disclosure,valuable information regarding users may be gathered. For example, thisinformation may be used for targeted advertising, promotionalactivities, and/or other purposes. For example, this information may beused, e.g. after being sold to a demand-side platform, to providetargeted advertising. Advertising may be targeted, e.g., to users and/ordevices. Targeted advertising may be of interest to commercial entities,including but not limited to ad servers, search servers, third-party adbrokers, third-party platforms, and/or other commercial entitiesinvolved in buying or selling advertisements on the internet. In someembodiments, third-party platforms may include one or more demand-sideplatforms.

The system may include one or more servers, one or more physicalprocessors, physical electronic storage, one or more presentationdevices, one or more sound-producing devices, and/or other components.The system may further be configured to communicate with, by way ofnon-limiting example, one or more commercial providers, client computingplatforms that are associated with users, and/or other entitiesdescribed in this disclosure. Individual users may interact, e.g.through browser software applications being executed on client computingplatforms, with servers and/or other components of the system.

Presentation devices may be configured to present information to users.The information may include one or more of audio, video, text,animation, images, and/or combinations thereof. Presentation devices mayinclude, by way of non-limiting example, radio, television, clientcomputing platforms, displays, monitors, sound systems, publicannouncement systems, and/or other devices that present audio and/orvideo to one or more users.

Sound-producing devices may be configured to present information tousers, in particular information including sound. The information mayinclude one or more of audio, video, text, animation, images, and/orcombinations thereof. Sound-producing devices may include, by way ofnon-limiting example, radio, television, client computing platforms,displays, monitors, sound systems, public announcement systems, and/orother devices that present audio and/or video to one or more users.

The processors may be configured via computer readable instructions toexecute computer program components. The computer program components mayinclude an information component, an advertisement component, a sourceparameter component, a source component, a selection component, apresentation component, a purchase component, a tracking component, acompensation component, a user parameter component, and/or othercomponents.

The information component may be configured to obtain, receive, and/ordetermine information based on captured sound, captured images, and/orother captured information. Alternatively, and/or simultaneously, theinformation component may be configured to obtain, receive, and/ordetermine information identifying an advertisement for a commercialgood. Alternatively, and/or simultaneously, the information componentmay be configured to obtain, receive, and/or determine informationidentifying a commercial good. For example, the obtained, received,and/or determined information may be embedded in the capturedinformation. For example, the captured sound may be captured through amicrophone. For example, the microphone may be included in (and/oroperate in conjunction with) a client computing platform. For example,the identified commercial good may have been presented to a user and/orpresented in proximity of a client computing platform. The clientcomputing platform may be associated with a particular user.Alternatively, and/or simultaneously, the captured information may becaptured through a camera. For example, the camera may be included in(and/or operate in conjunction with) a client computing platform. Theinformation obtained, received, and/or determined by the informationcomponent may include streaming audio and/or video information. In someembodiments, the information obtained, received, and/or determined bythe information component may include processed information (e.g.determined by processing the captured sound) that was processed by aclient computing platform.

In some embodiments, the information obtained, received, and/ordetermined by the information component may have been presented to auser, have been presented in proximity of a user, have been presented inproximity of a client computing platform associated with a user, and/orother presented in a way that a user was aware of and/or may have beenaware of As used in the context of this disclosure, the term “proximity”may refer to a distance small enough such that information may betransferred intelligibly. For example, proximity to a user may refer toa distance small enough such that the user can see, hear, and/orunderstand the transferred information. For example, proximity to aclient computing platform may refer to a distance small enough such thatthe client computing platform (e.g. through a microphone, camera, and/orcapturing device) can capture transferred information such that thesignal-to-noise ratio of the captured information is good enough for oneor more of the types of processing to be successfully performed asdescribed in this disclosure. For example, the obtained, received,and/or determined information may be embedded in the presentedinformation.

The source parameter component may be configured to obtain, receive,and/or determine information associated with commercial sources. In someembodiments, the source parameter component may be configured to obtain,receive, and/or determine source parameters associated with individualcommercial sources. By way of non-limiting example, source parametersmay include geographical information related to a commercial source,geographical information related to a particular commercial good forsale through a commercial source, parameters specific to a commercialsource (hereinafter “commercial source-specific parameters”), parametersspecific to a commercial good for sale through a commercial source(hereinafter “commercial good-specific parameters”), and/or otherparameters. By way of non-limiting example, commercial source-specificparameters may include shipping-related parameters, shipping costs,shipping speeds, shipping methods, tax-related parameters, amount ofprospective compensation from a commercial source, and/or othercommercial source-specific parameters. By way of non-limiting example,commercial good-specific parameters may include price, tax,shipping-related parameters, amount of prospective compensation forproviding information related to a particular commercial good, amount ofprospective compensation for effectuating a purchase of a particularcommercial good, and/or other commercial good-specific parameters.

The advertisement component may be configured to determineadvertisements for commercial goods, including but not limited todeterminations that are based on particular information obtained,received, and/or determined by the information component. In someembodiments, the particular information may be embedded in informationpresented to users. In some embodiments, the particular information mayinclude a stream or clip of audio. The advertisement component may beconfigured to determine an acoustic fingerprint based on the particularinformation. By way of non-limiting example, the technology used tomatch audio clips or fragments to particular advertisements may besimilar to the technology used by Shazam™ to identify songs based on anaudio clip.sup.1. .sup.1Seehttp://www.ee.columbia.edu/.about.dpwe/papers/Wang03-shazam.pdf

For example, a sound clip may be converted to a time-frequencyrepresentation. Based on extreme values in this domain (e.g. for powerat a particular frequency), an acoustic fingerprint for the sound clipmay include characteristics that correspond to those extreme values. Insome embodiments, a set of potentially extreme values that are includedin the acoustic fingerprint may be referred to as a constellation. Insome embodiments, processing and/or operations performed on the soundsclips may be done “locally” on the client computing platform 14 that isassociated with the user. In some embodiments, processing and/oroperations performed on the sounds clips may be done on one or more(external) servers. Combinations of these approaches, in which at leastsome of the processing and/or operations are performed by differentphysical entities, are envisioned within the current scope in thisdisclosure. The advertisement component may be configured to match thedetermined acoustic fingerprint against a database of acousticfingerprints. Acoustic fingerprints in the database may correspond toadvertisements. Advertisements may correspond to commercial goods. Theadvertisement component may be configured to determine a match for theacoustic fingerprint and/or a likelihood that a match is accurate. Amatching acoustic fingerprint may correspond to a particularadvertisement and/or a particular commercial good. Any functionalityattributed in this disclosure to a particular computer program componentmay be performed by multiple computer program components operating incoordination, by the system described in this disclosure and/or anycomponent thereof, by one or more servers, and/or any combinationthereof (e.g., “in the cloud”, and/or other virtualized processingsolutions). For example, control and operation of a database of acousticfingerprints may be performed by an external resource, e.g. as an onlineservice or online application. For example, control and operation of adatabase relating advertisements to commercial goods and/or vice versamay be performed by an external resource, e.g. as an online service oronline application.

As used herein, any association (or correspondency) involving users,client computing platforms, advertisements, commercial goods, commercialsources, acoustic fingerprints, representations of commercial goods,databases, compensations, and/or another entity or object that interactswith any part of the system and/or plays a part in the operation of thesystem, may be a one-to-one association, a one-to-many association, amany-to-one association, and/or a many-to-many association or N-to-Massociation (note that N and M may be different numbers greater than 1).

The source component may be configured to determine commercial sourcesof commercial goods. For example, a particular commercial good may beoffered for sale by one or more online retailers and/or other commercialsources. Determinations by the source component may be based on avariety of factors, including but not limited to price, availability,geographic location, time of day, user-preferences, internal systempreferences, source parameters, user parameters, and/or other factors.

The selection component may be configured to select one or morecommercial sources from a set of commercial sources. Selection by theselection component may be based on a variety of factors, including butnot limited to price, availability, geographic location, time of day,user-preferences, internal system preferences, source parameters, userparameters, factors based on recommendations, references, and/orendorsements obtained through social networking (e.g. from friends, orpeople followed by a user), and/or other factors. In some embodiments,selection by the selection component may be based on source parametersassociated with individual commercial sources. For example, selection bythe selection component may be based on comparisons with one or moreselection criteria. For example, selection by the selection componentmay be based on analysis of source parameters with regard to selectioncriteria. The parameters used by the selection component may be obtainedfrom, received from, and/or determined by other computer programmodules, including but not limited to the source parameter component,the user parameter component, and/or other components.

For example, an internal system preference for the selection componentmay be based on the compensation structure and/or incentive structure inplace with different commercial sources. For example, if two commercialsources offer a commercial good at the same price, the system may favorand/or select the commercial source having the higher compensation forproviding a lead or sale. In some embodiments, determinations ofcommercial sources for commercial goods may be implemented using adatabase. Commercial goods in the database may correspond to commercialsources and/or vice versa. For example, control and operation of adatabase of commercial sources and/or commercial goods may be performedby an external resource, e.g. as an online service or onlineapplication.

The presentation component may be configured to effectuate presentationsof user interfaces to users. User interfaces may be presented on clientcomputing platforms. The user interfaces may include representations ofcommercial goods, e.g. through icons, text, images, and/or combinationsthereof. In some embodiments, representations of commercial goods may beassociated with commercial sources. In some embodiments, the representedcommercial goods may correspond to advertisements including but notlimited to the advertisements as determined by the advertisementcomponent. In some embodiments, the user interfaces may provideinformation related to commercial goods. In some embodiments, the userinterfaces may provide offers for users to purchase commercial goodsfrom commercial sources and/or for commercial sources to sell commercialgoods to users. In some embodiments, the presentation component mayprovide the ability for users to purchase commercial goods within thesystem described in this disclosure. In some embodiments, thepresentation component may be configured to redirect and/or link usersto external web pages and/or applications that provide the ability forusers to purchase commercial goods. In some embodiments, combinations ofin-system purchasing and external purchasing may provide the ability forusers to purchase commercial goods.

The purchase component may be configured to effectuate purchases ofcommercial goods by users. In some embodiments, operation of thepurchase component may be performed in response to receipt of user inputinteracting with a user interface of a client computing platform. Insome embodiments, operation of the purchase component may include apayment solution, i.e. the ability to complete a financial transaction.In some embodiments, the purchase component may be configured to collectpayments from users.

In some embodiments, the purchase component may provide the ability forusers to effectuate purchases within the system described in thisdisclosure. In some embodiments, the purchase component may beconfigured to redirect and/or link users to external web pages and/orapplications that provide the ability for users to effectuate purchases.In some embodiments, combinations of in-system purchasing and externalpurchasing may provide the ability for users to effectuate purchasesand/or receive information about particular commercial goods.

The tracking component may be configured to track, record, analyze,and/or process information regarding advertisements, including but notlimited to occurrences of the presentation of an advertisement to a userand/or occurrences of the presentation of an advertisement in a clientcomputing platform. In some embodiments, the tracking component may beconfigured to track, record, analyze, and/or process informationregarding the operation of the presentation component, the purchasecomponent, and/or other components of the system. For example, thetracking component may be configured to track redirections from the userinterface to external web pages and/or applications that provide theability for users to purchase commercial goods.

The compensation component may be configured to track, record, analyze,and/or process purchase information, including but not limited toinformation regarding purchases that are offered and/or completedthrough the system. In some embodiments, the compensation component maybe configured to determine compensations for any of the operationsperformed by the system, including but not limited to the operationstracked by the tracking component. For example, the compensationcomponent may be configured to determine a compensation for determininga particular commercial source as the commercial source for a particularcommercial good.

In some embodiments, the compensation component may be configured toproduce bills, invoices, payments, and/or other financial documentsand/or messages to initiate the collection of payments and/or thedisbursement of payments based on the determined compensations. Thecompensation component may be configured to produce, generate, and/ortransmit financial documents to initiate the distribution of paymentsbased on the determined compensations for, e.g., commercial providers.

The user parameter component may be configured to obtain, receive,and/or determine user parameters associated with users and/or clientcomputing platforms. An individual client computing platform may beassociated with a user. The user parameters may be used by othercomputer program components, including, but not limited, to theselection component. The user parameters may include one or more ofuser-specific parameters, geographical information related to a user, acurrent geographical location of a user, a home location of a user, awork or professional location of a user, a school or leisure-relatedlocation of a user, a combination of multiple locations of a user, atime zone of a user, demographic information of a user, stated userpreferences, stated user dislike, derived user preferences, purchasehistory of a user, information related to age, gender, address, zipcode, time zone, income level, education level, employment, professionalstatus, family status, personal information, professional information,social media information, racial information, detected languagepreference, stated language preference, and/or parameters.

The system may include one or more servers. The server(s) may beconfigured to communicate with one or more client computing platforms.The server(s) may be configured to communicate according to aclient/server architecture, and/or according other architectures. Theservers may include search servers, ad servers, ad brokers, demand-sideplatforms, third-party platforms, and/or other servers.

The server(s) may include physical electronic storage, one or moreprocessors, and/or other components. The server(s) may be configured toexecute one or more computer program components. Physical electronicstorage may be referred to as electronic storage.

The system may include one or more client computing platforms. Clientcomputing platforms may include one or more processors configured toexecute computer program components. The computer program components maybe configured to enable a user associated with a client computingplatform to interact with the system, any component thereof, otherclient computing platforms, and/or provide other functionalityattributed herein to client computing platforms. By way of non-limitingexample, client computing platforms may include one or more of a desktopcomputer, a laptop computer, a handheld computer, a NetBook, aSmartphone, a tablet, a mobile computing platform, a gaming console, atelevision, a smart watch, a device for streaming internet media, and/orother computing platforms. The term client computing platform may beused interchangeably with the term computing device.

Functionality supported by commercial providers may include theprovision of advertisements, web pages, (mobile) applications, apps,stand-alone applications, desktop applications, and/or other types ofsoftware applications capable of interacting with a network, for examplethe internet. As used herein, information and/or functionality providedthrough any type of software application capable of interacting with anetwork may be referred to as web pages (including, but not limited to,mobile applications—or apps).

Web pages may be rendered, interpreted, and/or displayed forpresentation using a computing platform, such as a client computingplatform. As used herein, displaying information through a mobileapplication—or app—is included in the term presentation. Presentation ofweb pages may be supported through a display, screen, monitor of thecomputing platform, and/or projection by the computing platform. Webpages may be accessible from a local computing platform (e.g. notcurrently connected to the internet) and/or hosted by a remote webserver (e.g. connected to the internet and/or one or more othernetworks). Web pages may be accessed through a browser softwareapplication being executed on a computing platform. As used herein,mobile applications may be included in the term browser softwareapplication. Web pages may be static (e.g. stored using electronicstorage that is accessible by a web server), dynamic (e.g. constructedwhen requested), and/or a combination of both. The browser softwareapplication may be configured to render, interpret, and/or display oneor more web pages for presentation using a computing platform. Thedigital content included in a web page may have been provided by one ormore commercial providers. A set of linked and/or organized web pagesmay form a website. A website may include a set of related and/or linkedweb pages hosted on one or more web servers and accessible via anetwork, e.g. the internet. Websites and/or web pages may be accessiblethrough an address called a uniform resource locator (URL).

The servers may include one or more demand-side platforms. A demand-sideplatform may be configured to provide a market, auction-house, and/orexchange pertaining to advertising, e.g. online advertising. In someembodiments, a demand-side platform provides ad exchange accounts and/ordata exchange accounts for advertisers. In some embodiments, ademand-side platform enables (real-time) bidding for displaying onlineads. In some embodiments, a demand-side platform may issue and/ortransmit a request for and/or invitation to acquire information. Theinformation may pertain to one or more particular users, one or moreparticular user identifiers that identify particular users, one or moreparticular devices, one or more particular device identifiers, one ormore particular commercial goods, and/or other particular entities.

The servers may include one or more search servers. A search server mayhost a website that that allows users to interact and/or engage with(searchable) information. Users may interact through user interfacesthat are displayed and/or presented on client computing platforms.Information related to entered queries may be processed, analyzed,recorded, packaged, offered for sale, exchanged, combined with otherinformation, and/or sold. In response to a web search query from aparticular user through a particular client computing platform, a searchserver may provide access to and/or present one or more digital mediafiles, e.g. through one or more web pages. The one or more web pages maybe presented (or displayed for presentation) to the particular user by abrowser software application that is being run or executed on theparticular client computing platform. As used herein, the term “files”may include digital files of a fixed and/or predetermined length orsize, streams of digital information, and/or combinations thereof. Byway of non-limiting example, streams of digital information may includemusic (e.g. radio), podcasts, video, and/or other streams ofinformation.

An ad server may host and/or provide digital content, usually of acommercial nature and usually to other servers, to be presented fordisplay on client computing platforms. The presentation of digitalcontent may occur in conjunction with the presentation of one or moredigital media files, web pages, and/or other digital content used bycommercial providers. The digital content may include one or more ofadvertisements, coupons, offers, sales information, brandinginformation, and/or other information related to commercial goods. Thetypes of information hosted and/or provided by an ad server may jointlybe referred to as “ads” or “advertisements” throughout this disclosure.

The functionality of the system is not intended to be limited by any ofthe examples herein. It is contemplated that information and/or resultsfrom any component of the system may be used in any other component,combined with information and/or results from any component, and soforth.

These and other objects, features, and characteristics of the servers,systems and/or methods disclosed herein, as well as the methods ofoperation and functions of the related elements of structure and thecombination of parts and economies of manufacture, will become moreapparent upon consideration of the following description and theappended claims with reference to the accompanying figures, all of whichform a part of this specification, wherein like reference numeralsdesignate corresponding parts in the various figures. It is to beexpressly understood, however, that the figures are for the purpose ofillustration and description only and are not intended as a definitionof any limits. As used in the specification and in the claims, thesingular form of “a”, “an”, and “the” include plural referents unlessthe context clearly dictates otherwise. As used in the specification andin the claims, in a list of items that includes the separator “and/or”,combinations of those items, insofar as practically possible, areenvisioned as embodiments

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way ofexample only, with reference to the following drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a system configured to provide responses toadvertising, in accordance with one or more embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates a method for providing responses to advertising, inaccordance with one or more embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates a method for providing responses to advertising, inaccordance with one or more embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates a view of an exemplary user interface in accordancewith one or more embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 illustrates a system 10 configured to provide and/or respond toadvertising, e.g. on a network 13. In some embodiments, network 13 maybe the internet and/or one or more other networks, e.g. public networks.System 10 may include one or more servers 11, one or more processors 20,electronic storage 60, one or more computer program components, one ormore presentation devices 15, one or more sound-producing devices 16,one or more commercial sources 17, one or more external resources 18,one or more client computing platforms 14, and/or other components.System 10 may facilitate interaction between users and serviceproviders, online services, servers, commercial sources 17, publicand/or commercial databases, external resources 18, third-partyad-brokers, third-party platforms, demand-side platforms, and/or otherentities, which may collectively be referred to as commercial providers.

System 10 may facilitate interaction between different commercialproviders. System 10 and/or any entities that interact with system 10may be deployed using a (public) network and/or using commercial webservices. System 10 may facilitate interaction involving users, forexample through client computing platforms 14 (also referred to hereinas computing devices). Users may be associated with client computingplatforms 14, and/or vice versa. External resources 18 may include oneor more demand-side platforms, ad servers, search servers, serviceproviders, online services, public and/or commercial databases, servers,and/or other entities.

The components in FIG. 1 may be communicatively coupled through one ormore networks 13, including but not limited to the Internet. In someembodiments, one or more of the processors 20, electronic storage 60,and/or other components may be included in server 11.

Digital content, for example digital media files containing image dataand/or other information, may be presented for display to users onclient computing platforms 14 associated with those users. Individualusers may request and/or view one or more digital media files through awebsite or web-based system. The website, its web pages, the web-basedsystem, and/or the digital media files associated therewith, may beaccessed by users, for example through browser software applicationsbeing executed on client computing platforms 14.

Advertising may become increasingly valuable and/or effective if theeffort required from a user to respond to an advertisement, e.g. througha purchase, is reduced. Advertising may become increasingly valuableand/or effective if it is tailored to its intended audience. Advertisingmay become increasingly valuable and/or effective if the advertisedgoods and/or services are likely to meet a demand or need of itsintended audience. Advertising may be either off-line (e.g. throughpaper mail), broadcast (e.g. through radio or television), online (e.g.delivered as content to client computing platforms), and/or using adifferent modality or combination of modalities. Different kinds ormodalities of advertising may have different kinds of characteristicsand qualities, such that common techniques in one context may not beavailable or practicable in another context, and/or may be refined orchanged for increased value to advertisers in another context ormodality.

Advertising may be improved if detailed information regarding theintended audience is available. For example, system 10 may be able todetermine (e.g. based on information about a particular computingdevice's connectivity with servers) a geographical area that has thehighest likelihood of coinciding with the location of a particularcomputing device 14, and thus its associated user. For example, thegeographical area may coincide with a town, city, and/or community. Forexample, a website may be able to gather information associated with aparticular computing device 14, including but not limited to a zip code,time zone, preferred language, and/or other user-specific and/ordevice-specific information. Such information may be stated by a userand/or derived in other ways. Determination of geographical informationmay be based, by way of non-limiting example, on latitude information,longitude information, global positioning system (GPS) information,Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) information, cell tower information,internet protocol (IP) address lookup, and/or other information.

By virtue of the functionality described in this disclosure, users mayeasily and quickly respond to advertising presented to users, inproximity of users, and/or in proximity of client computing platforms 14associated with users. In some embodiments, client computing platforms14 may capture and/or receive information (including but not limited toaudio, video, text, animation, images, and/or combinations thereof). Insome embodiments, client computing platforms 14 may obtain and/ordetermine an advertisement for a commercial good based on thisinformation. In some embodiments, client computing platforms 14 mayobtain and/or determine a commercial source for the commercial good. Insome embodiments, client computing platforms 14 may provide the abilityfor users to purchase the commercial good. Any functionality attributedin this disclosure to client computing platforms 14 may be performed bymultiple client computing platforms 14 operating in coordination, bysystem 10 and/or any component thereof, by one or more servers 11,and/or any combination thereof (e.g., “in the cloud”, and/or othervirtualized processing solutions).

Through the functionality of system 10, valuable information regardingusers may be gathered. For example, this information may be used fortargeted advertising, promotional activities, and/or other purposes. Forexample, this information may be used, e.g. after being sold to ademand-side platform, to provide targeted advertising. Advertising maybe targeted, e.g., to users and/or devices. Targeted advertising may beof interest to commercial entities, including but not limited to adservers, search servers, third-party ad brokers, third-party platforms,and/or other commercial entities involved in buying or sellingadvertisements on the internet. In some embodiments, third-partyplatforms may include one or more demand-side platforms.

System 10 may include one or more servers 11, one or more physicalprocessors 20, physical electronic storage 60, one or more presentationdevices 15, one or more sound-producing devices 16, and/or othercomponents. System 10 may further be configured to communicate with, byway of non-limiting example, one or more commercial providers, clientcomputing platforms 14 that are associated with users, and/or otherentities described in this disclosure. Individual users may interact,e.g. through browser software applications being executed on clientcomputing platforms 14, with servers 11 and/or other components ofsystem 10.

Presentation devices 15 may be configured to present information tousers. The information may include one or more of audio, video, text,animation, images, and/or combinations thereof. Presentation devices 15may include, by way of non-limiting example, radio, television, clientcomputing platforms 14, displays, monitors, sound systems, publicannouncement systems, and/or other devices that present audio and/orvideo to one or more users.

Sound-producing devices 16 may be configured to present information tousers, in particular information including sound. The information mayinclude one or more of audio, video, text, animation, images, and/orcombinations thereof. Sound-producing devices 16 may include, by way ofnon-limiting example, radio, television, client computing platforms 14,displays, monitors, sound systems, public announcement systems, and/orother devices that present audio and/or video to one or more users.

Processors 20 may be configured via computer readable instructions toexecute computer program components. The computer program components mayinclude an information component 111, an advertisement component 112, asource component 114, a presentation component 116, a purchase component117, a tracking component 118, a compensation component 119, and/orother components.

Information component 111 may be configured to obtain, receive, and/ordetermine information based on captured sound, captured images, and/orother captured information (e.g. video). Alternatively, and/orsimultaneously, information component 111 may be configured to obtain,receive, and/or determine information identifying an advertisement for acommercial good. Alternatively, and/or simultaneously, informationcomponent 111 may be configured to obtain, receive, and/or determineinformation identifying a commercial good. For example, the capturedsound may be captured through a microphone 142. For example, microphone142 may be included in (and/or operate in conjunction with) clientcomputing platform 14. For example, the identified commercial good mayhave been presented to a user and/or presented in proximity of clientcomputing platform 14. Client computing platform 14 may be associatedwith a particular user. Alternatively, and/or simultaneously, thecaptured information may be captured through a camera 143. For example,the camera may be included in (and/or operate in conjunction with)client computing platform 14. Note that this particular client computingplatform 14 may not be the source for the captured sound, the capturedimage, the captured video, and/or other captured information, which mayfor example be generated by sound-producing device 16, presentationdevice 15, and/or one or more other devices.

The information obtained, received, and/or determined by informationcomponent 111 may include streaming audio and/or video information. Insome embodiments, the information obtained, received, and/or determinedby information component 111 may include processed information (e.g.determined by processing the captured sound or image) that was processedby client computing platform 14. For example, a captured image orcaptured video may have been captured by and/or stored on clientcomputing platform, e.g. through camera 143. In some embodiments, theinformation obtained, received, and/or determined by informationcomponent 111 may include wirelessly transmitted information from asound-producing device 16, a presentation device 15, an externalresource 18, and/or another source. For example, information may bewirelessly transmitted (by a component of a car's entertainment system)to a client computing platform 14 that happens to be inside the car.This kind of wireless transmission of information may, in someembodiments, not require audio signals, and/or not include audiosignals. For example, the client computing platform may receiveinformation packets through Bluetooth™ and/or other communicationmechanisms that include information about advertisements, commercialgoods, commercial sources, and/or other pertinent information.

In some embodiments, the information obtained, received, and/ordetermined by information component 111 may have been presented to auser, have been presented in proximity of a user, have been presented inproximity of client computing platform 14 associated with a user, and/orotherwise presented in a way that a user was aware of and/or may havebeen aware of. In some embodiments, operation of information component111 and/or system 10 may be controlled by a user who can turn componentsand/or system 10 on or off at will. In some embodiments, responsive to auser turning components and/or system 10 on, the same components and/orsystem 10 may automatically be turned off after a predetermined span oftime has passed. In some embodiments, responsive to a user turningcomponents and/or system on, the same components and/or system 10 may beactive indefinitely, performing the operations described in thisdisclosure.

Source parameter component 113 may be configured to obtain, receive,and/or determine information associated with commercial sources 17. Insome embodiments, source parameter component 113 may be configured toobtain, receive, and/or determine source parameters associated withindividual commercial sources 17.

Advertisement component 112 may be configured to determineadvertisements for commercial goods, including but not limited todeterminations that are based on particular information obtained,received, and/or determined by information component 111. In someembodiments, the particular information may include a stream or clip ofaudio. Advertisement component 112 may be configured to determine anacoustic fingerprint based on the particular information. By way ofnon-limiting example, the technology used to match audio clips orfragments to particular advertisements may be similar to the technologyused by Shazam™ to identify songs based on an audio clip. Alternatively,and/or simultaneously, audio clips or fragments may include embeddedinformation, e.g. through embedded tone and/or other marks that may beused to identify songs, advertisements, and/or other information.Advertisement component 112 may be configured to match the determinedacoustic fingerprint against a database of acoustic fingerprints.Acoustic fingerprints in the database may correspond to advertisements.Advertisements may correspond to commercial goods. Advertisementcomponent 112 may be configured to determine a match for the acousticfingerprint and/or a likelihood that a match is accurate. In someembodiments, advertisement component 112 may be configured to determinewhich entry in a database is the best match for a particular acousticfingerprint. A matching acoustic fingerprint may correspond to aparticular advertisement and/or a particular commercial good. Anyfunctionality attributed in this disclosure to a particular computerprogram component may be performed by multiple computer programcomponents operating in coordination, by system 10 and/or any componentthereof, by one or more servers 11, and/or any combination thereof(e.g., “in the cloud”, and/or other virtualized processing solutions).For example, control and operation of a database of acousticfingerprints may be performed by an external resource, e.g. as an onlineservice or online application. For example, control and operation of adatabase relating advertisements to commercial goods and/or vice versamay be performed by an external resource 18, e.g. as an online serviceor online application.

In some embodiments, the operation of advertisement component 112 mayinclude specialized databases, and/or multiple copies of databases. Forexample, databases may be specialized regarding one or more specificlanguages, one or more specific time zones, one or more specificgeographical locations, and/or other distinguishing features ofadvertisements, client computing platforms, users, and/or other entitiesrelated to system 10. In some embodiments, the operation ofadvertisement component 112 may include one or more local databases,regional databases, city-wide databases, county-wide databases,state-wide databases, national databases, and/or other databasescontaining information (by way of non-limiting example, acousticfingerprints of advertisements) used to make determinations as describedherein. In some embodiments, the operation of advertisement component112 may include multiple databases that are searched through at the sametime. For example, each database may return the best match available,and advertisement component 112 may be configured to select among theseoptions for the better match in light of some criterion (e.g. alikelihood metric).

Source component 114 may be configured to determine commercial sources17 of commercial goods. For example, a particular commercial good may beoffered for sale by one or more online retailers and/or other commercialsources 17. In some embodiments, commercial sources 17 as determined maybe able to provide information related to one or more particularcommercial goods, In some embodiments, commercial sources 17 asdetermined may provide information related to one or more particularcommercial goods, In some embodiments, commercial sources 17 asdetermined may be able to provide information related to offers to sellone or more particular commercial goods, In some embodiments, commercialsources 17 as determined may provide information related to offers tosell one or more particular commercial goods, In some embodiments,commercial sources 17 as determined may offer to sell one or moreparticular commercial goods, Determinations by source component 114 maybe based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to price,availability, geographic location, demographic information of the user,user-preferences, internal system preferences, and/or other factors.

Selection component 114 may be configured to select one or morecommercial sources 17 from a set of commercial sources 17. Selection byselection component 114 may be based on a variety of factors, includingbut not limited to price, availability, geographic location, time ofday, user-preferences, internal system preferences, source parameters,user parameters, and/or other factors. In some embodiments, selection byselection component 114 may be based on source parameters associatedwith individual commercial sources 17. For example, selection byselection component 17 may be based on comparisons with one or moreselection criteria. For example, selection by selection component 17 maybe based on analysis of source parameters with regard to selectioncriteria. The parameters used by selection component 114 may be obtainedfrom, received from, and/or determined by other computer programmodules, including but not limited to source parameter component 113,user parameter component 120, and/or other components.

In some embodiments, the selection criteria may include, by way ofnon-limiting example, one or more of source parameters, user parameters,stated user preferences for particular commercial sources 17, stateduser dislike for particular commercial sources 17, obtained userpreferences based on effectuated purchases through system 10, obtaineduser preferences based on effectuated selections of representations ofcommercial goods by a user in a user interface, purchase history of auser, amount of prospective compensation for providing informationrelated to a particular commercial good, amount of prospectivecompensation for effectuating a purchase of a particular commercialgood, demographic information of a user, and/or other criteria orparameters. For example, demographic information of a user may includeinformation related to age, gender, address, zip code, time zone, incomelevel, education level, employment, professional status, family status,personal information, professional information, social mediainformation, racial information, detected language preference, statedlanguage preference, and/or other demographic information.

For example, an internal system preference may be based on thecompensation structure and/or incentive structure in place withdifferent commercial sources. For example, if two commercial sources 17offer a commercial good at the same price, system 10 may favor and/orselect the commercial source 17 that has the higher compensation incomparison for providing a lead or sale. In some embodiments,determinations of commercial sources 17 for commercial goods may beimplemented using a database. Commercial goods in the database maycorrespond to commercial sources 17 and/or vice versa. For example,control and operation of a database of commercial sources 17 and/orcommercial goods may be performed by an external resource 18, e.g. as anonline service or online application.

In some embodiments, one or more factors used by source component 114 asa basis for determinations may be obtained and/or determined by one ormore external resources 18. For example, a factor may be the homelocation of a particular user, and/or the current location of aparticular user. For example, a factor may be location of one or morecommercial sources 17. For example, a factor may be a (detected)language of a particular advertisement. For example, a factor may be thecurrent time zone of a particular user. In some embodiments, multiplefactors may be combined. For example, a factor may be one or morepreferences (e.g. for particular online retailers, or particularshipping methods/speeds, etc.) expressed by a particular user. In someembodiments, a user-preference such as a preferred online retailer maybe weighed against a price differential between different onlineretailers. For example, if the price at the preferred online retailer iswithin a predetermined price differential threshold (e.g. of 10% of thelowest available price, or $2) when compared against the lowestavailable price, source component 114 may be configured to select thepreferred online retailer. If the price differential exceeds thepredetermined price differential threshold, source component 114 may beconfigured to select the online retailer that offers the lowest price,despite being different from the user-preferred online retailer. In someembodiments, differences in shipping prices may be considered by sourcecomponent 114 when making determinations.

In some embodiments, the one or more factors used by source component114 as a basis for determinations may include a factor related to theway in which different commercial sources 17 compensate and/or offercompensation and/or the level/amount of compensation for leads,redirections, and/or sales.

In some embodiments, the one or more factors used by source component114 as a basis for determinations may include knowledge about what otheradvertisements, commercial goods, and commercial sources have previouslybeen presented to the user. In some embodiments, prior activity withinsystem 10 may provide context for the operation of the computer programmodules. Alternatively, and/or simultaneously, prior activities and/orreactions by a user may provide context for the operation of thecomputer program modules. For example, a commercial source 17 from whicha purchase was previously made by a particular user may be favored overanother commercial source 17 (e.g. by source component 114). Any of thefactors used by source component 114 may be used as the basis forpresenting coupons and/or other incentives to users.

Presentation component 116 may be configured to effectuate presentationsof user interfaces to users. User interfaces may be presented on clientcomputing platforms 14. The user interfaces may include representationsof commercial goods, e.g. through icons, text, images, and/orcombinations thereof. In some embodiments, representations of commercialgoods may be associated with commercial sources 17. In some embodiments,the represented commercial goods may correspond to advertisementsincluding but not limited to the advertisements as determined byadvertisement component 112. In some embodiments, the user interfacesmay provide offers for users to purchase commercial goods fromcommercial sources 17 and/or for commercial sources 17 to sellcommercial goods to users. In some embodiments, presentation component116 may provide the ability for users to purchase commercial goodswithin system 10. In some embodiments, presentation component 116 may beconfigured to redirect and/or link users to external web pages and/orapplications that provide the ability for users to purchase commercialgoods. In some embodiments, combinations of in-system purchasing andexternal purchasing may provide the ability for users to purchasecommercial goods.

By way of illustration, FIG. 4 illustrates a view of a user interface 40presented on client computing platform 14 (in this case a tablet, by wayof non-limiting example). Client computing platform 14 is used by a user47 who is watching an advertisement 48 on presentation device 15 (inthis case a television, by way of non-limiting example). The particularadvertisement 48 may be for a particular commercial good. Advertisement48 may include sound, which may be captured by client computing platform14 in FIG. 4. Based on the captured sound, the particular advertisement48 and the particular commercial good may be determined, by virtue ofthe features described in this disclosure. One or more commercialsources, including a particular commercial source, for the particularcommercial good may be determined and/or selected (commercial sourcesnot shown in FIG. 4). User interface 40 may be presented through clientcomputing platform 14 in response to advertisement 48 being presented onpresentation device 15. Elements of user interface 40 may be implementedas fields configured to receive entry, selection, and/or confirmationfrom a user (e.g. user 47). The fields may include one or more of a textentry field, a set of selectable menu items, a selectable field, and/orother fields configured to receive entry, selection, and/or confirmationfrom the emergency operator. The number of elements, components, and/or(user-selectable) fields depicted in FIG. 4 is meant to be exemplary,and not limiting in any way. User interface 40 may be configured topresent information to and/or enable interaction with user 47.

User interface 40 of FIG. 4 may include interface elements 41, 42, 43,44, 45, 46, and/or other components and/or features. Interface elements41, 42, 43, 44, 45, and 46 may be, e.g., an object, interface, and/orother items that a user may interact with, such as a menu ofuser-selectable options and/or actions for engaging the system.Interface elements 41, 42, and 43 may be informational elements, e.g.icons, images, text, animations, and/or combinations thereof. Interfaceelements 44, 45, and 46 may be action elements. For example, interfaceelement 43 may depict a representation of the particular commercial goodand/or the particular commercial source related to advertisement 48. Forexample, interface element 46 may, upon activation by user 47,effectuate a purchase of the particular commercial good depicted byinterface element 43. In some embodiments, interface element 46 may,upon activation by user 47, effectuate presentation of informationrelated to the particular commercial good depicted by interface element43. In some embodiments, activation of an interface element may open apossibly external web page and/or redirect user 47 to a possiblyexternal web page.

In some embodiments, interface elements 42 and 41 may depictrepresentations of alternate commercial sources for the same particularcommercial good as represented using interface element 43. Interfaceelements 45 and 44 may, upon activation by user 47, effectuate purchasesof the particular commercial good at the particular commercial sourcedepicted by interface element 42 and 41, respectively. Alternatively,and/or simultaneously, in some embodiments, interface elements 42 and 41may depict representations of different commercial goods and/ordifferent commercial sources related to advertisements other thanadvertisement 48. For example, interface elements 42 and 41 may depictrepresentations of commercial goods related to previously presentedadvertisements. Interface elements 45 and 44 may, upon activation byuser 47, effectuate purchases of the particular commercial good at theparticular commercial source depicted by interface element 42 and 41,respectively.

The number of interface elements as depicted in FIG. 4 is exemplary, andnot limiting in any way. In some embodiments, the number ofinformational elements and/or the number of corresponding actionelements may be limited by a predetermined (and/or user-programmable)maximum number. For example, in some embodiments, the maximum number ofdepicted representations may be 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and/or anothermaximum number of depicted representations. In such a case, responsiveto another advertisements being presented near the user, the userinterface may be designed to remove the oldest representation to makeplace for the newest representation. In some embodiments, otherreplacement schemes may be used. For example, the user interface may bedesigned to learn which commercial goods are least likely and/or mostlikely to be of interest to the user, and use this knowledge as a basisfor a replacement scheme. In some embodiments, the number ofinformational elements and/or the number of corresponding actionelements may be limited by a predetermined (and/or user-programmable)time frame or span of time. For example, in some embodiments, themaximum time frame may be 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 40minutes, 60 minutes, 2 hours, 3 hours, 4, hours, 5 hours, 6 hours, 7hours, 8 hours, and/or another maximum timeframe. In such a case, theuser interface may be designed such that all representations forcommercial goods that have been presented within the most recent timeframe are depicted. Once the amount of time in the time frame has passedsince a particular commercial good was presented, the representationthereof may be removed from the user interface. In some embodiments,combinations of these maximum number and maximum timeframe schemes maybe used to determine which representations to depict in the userinterface.

Referring to FIG. 1, purchase component 117 may be configured toeffectuate purchases of commercial goods by users. In some embodiments,operation of purchase component 117 may be performed in response toreceipt of user input interacting with a user interface of a clientcomputing platform 14. In some embodiments, operation of purchasecomponent 117 may include a payment solution, i.e. the ability tocomplete a financial transaction. In some embodiments, purchasecomponent 117 may be configured to collect payments from users. In someembodiments, system 10 may cooperate with a company or service thathandles payment transactions (e.g. through a bank, a credit cardcompany, and/or other payment solutions). In such a case, sourcecomponent 114 may be configured to favor commercial sources 17 that haveparticular terms with the company or service mentioned above overcommercial sources 17 that have no such terms, or less favorable terms,and/or are otherwise less desirable to be selected from a compensationviewpoint.

In some embodiments, purchase component 117 may provide the ability forusers to effectuate purchases within system 10, e.g. throughconfirmation of a financial transaction. In some embodiments, purchasecomponent 117 may be configured to redirect and/or link users toexternal web pages and/or applications that provide the ability forusers to effectuate purchases. In some embodiments, combinations ofin-system purchasing and external purchasing may provide the ability forusers to effectuate purchases.

Tracking component 118 may be configured to track, record, analyze,and/or process information regarding advertisements, including but notlimited to occurrences of the presentation of an advertisement to a userand/or occurrences of the presentation of an advertisement in clientcomputing platform 14. In some embodiments, tracking component 118 maybe configured to track, record, analyze, and/or process informationregarding the operation of presentation component 116, purchasecomponent 117, and/or other components of system 10. For example,tracking component 118 may be configured to track redirections from theuser interface to external web pages and/or applications that providethe ability for users to purchase commercial goods.

In some embodiments, tracking component 118 may be configured todetermine preferences and/or habits of a particular user, including butnot limited to what kinds of shows the user watches or listens to. Datagathered by tracking component 118 may be valuable, e.g. foradvertisers.

Compensation component 119 may be configured to track, record, analyze,and/or process purchase information, including but not limited toinformation regarding purchases that are offered and/or completedthrough system 10. In some embodiments, compensation component 119 maybe configured to determine compensations for any of the operationsperformed by system 10, including but not limited to the operationstracked by tracking component 118. For example, compensation component119 may be configured to determine a compensation for determining aparticular commercial source 17 as the commercial source for aparticular commercial good.

In some embodiments, compensation component 119 may be configured toproduce bills, invoices, payments, and/or other financial documentsand/or messages to initiate the collection of payments and/or thedisbursement of payments based on the determined compensations.Compensation component 119 may be configured to produce, generate,and/or transmit financial documents to initiate the distribution ofpayments based on the determined compensations for, e.g., commercialproviders.

User parameter component 120 may be configured to obtain, receive,and/or determine user parameters associated with users and/or clientcomputing platforms 14. The user parameters may be used by othercomputer program components, including, but not limited, to selectioncomponent 115. For example, selection component 115 may be configured toselect a particular commercial source 17 from a set of commercialsources 17 based on one or more user parameters in combination with oneor more source parameters. For example, in some embodiments, a selectionmay be based on comparing one or more geographical locations ofindividual commercial sources 17 with a home location and a professionallocation of a user. For example, in some embodiments, a selection may bebased on a composite comparison involving the price of a particularcommercial good including shipping cost, the income level of the user,and the purchase history of the user.

By way of non-limiting illustration, FIG. 3 illustrates steps fordetermining and/or selecting a commercial source 17 of a particularcommercial good. Set of commercial sources 30 includes five commercialsources which are labeled S1, S2, S3, S4, and S5. Set of users 31includes three users which are labeled U1, U2, and U3. Step 32 depicts adetermination whether any of the commercial sources in set 30 offer aparticular commercial good “X” for sale. Inputs for step 32 includesource parameters that are obtained from set 30, user parameters thatare obtained from set 31, and/or other information. Based on thedetermination in step 32, step 33 depicts the subsequent selection amongcommercial sources that offer commercial good “X,” in this casecommercial sources S1 and S2. Inputs for step 33 include sourceselection criteria (e.g. based on commercial source-specific parametersand/or commercial good-specific parameters, e.g. as obtained from set30), user selection criteria (e.g. based on user parameters, e.g. asobtained from set 31), and/or other information. Based on the selectionin step 33, user interface 40 depicts the presentation of arepresentation of commercial source S1 which offers to sell commercialgood “X” (through interface element 43). Upon activation of actionelement 46, a purchase of commercial good “X” from commercial source S1is effectuated. Previously presented commercial sources and commercialgoods are depicted as interface element 42 (presenting a representationof commercial source S3 offering to provide information regardingcommercial good “Y” upon activation of action element 45) and interfaceelement 41 (presenting a representation of commercial source S4 offeringto sell commercial good “Z” upon activation of action element 44).

System 10 may include one or more servers 11. Server(s) 11 may beconfigured to communicate with one or more client computing platforms14. Server(s) 11 may be configured to communicate according to aclient/server architecture, and/or according other architectures.Servers 11 may include search servers, ad servers, ad brokers,demand-side platforms, third-party platforms, and/or other servers.

Server(s) 11 may include physical electronic storage 60, one or moreprocessors 20, and/or other components. Server(s) 11 may be configuredto execute one or more computer program components. Physical electronicstorage 60 may be referred to as electronic storage.

One or more processors 20 may be configured to provide informationprocessing capabilities in system 10 and/or server 11. As such,processor 20 may include one or more of a digital processor, an analogprocessor, a digital circuit designed to process information, an analogcircuit designed to process information, a state machine, and/or othermechanisms for electronically processing information. Although processor20 may be shown in FIG. 1 as a single entity, this is for illustrativepurposes only. In some embodiments, processor 20 may include a pluralityof processing units. These processing units may be physically locatedwithin the same device, or processor 20 may represent processingfunctionality of a plurality of devices operating in coordination (e.g.,“in the cloud”, and/or other virtualized processing solutions).

It should be appreciated that although components 111-120, areillustrated in FIG. 1 as being co-located within a single processingunit, in embodiments in which processor 20 includes multiple processingunits, one or more of components 111-120 may be located remotely fromthe other components. The description of the functionality provided bythe different components 111-120 described herein is for illustrativepurposes, and is not intended to be limiting, as any of components111-120 may provide more or less functionality than is described. Forexample, one or more of components 111-120 may be eliminated, and someor all of its functionality may be provided by other ones of components111-120. As another example, processor 20 may be configured to executeone or more additional components that may perform some or all of thefunctionality attributed herein to one of components 111-120.

Electronic storage 60 of system 10 in FIG. 1 may comprise electronicstorage media that stores information. The electronic storage media ofelectronic storage 60 may include one or both of system storage that isprovided integrally (i.e., substantially non-removable) with server 11and/or removable storage that is removably connectable to server 11 via,for example, a port (e.g., a USB port, a FireWire™ port, etc.) or adrive (e.g., a disk drive, etc.). Electronic storage 60 may include oneor more of optically readable storage media (e.g., optical disks, etc.),magnetically readable storage media (e.g., magnetic tape, magnetic harddrive, floppy drive, etc.), electrical charge-based storage media (e.g.,EEPROM, RAM, etc.), solid-state storage media (e.g., flash drive, etc.),network-attached storage (NAS), and/or other electronically readablestorage media. Electronic storage 60 may include virtual storageresources, such as storage resources provided via a cloud and/or avirtual private network. Electronic storage 60 may store softwarealgorithms, information determined by processor 20, information receivedvia client computing platforms 14, and/or other information that enableserver 11 and system 10 to function properly. Electronic storage 60 maybe separate components within system 10, or electronic storage 60 may beprovided integrally with one or more other components of system 10(e.g., processor 20).

FIG. 2 illustrates a method 200 for guiding user response toadvertising. Regarding method 200, at an operation 202, informationidentifying a given commercial good is obtained. An advertisement forthe given commercial good has been presented to the user and/orpresented in proximity of the client computing platform. In someembodiments, operation 202 is performed by an information component thesame as or similar to information component 111 (shown in FIG. 1 anddescribed herein).

At an operation 204, source parameters associated with individual onesof a set of commercial sources are obtained. The individual ones of theset of commercial sources provide information related to commercialgoods (and/or information related to offers to sell commercial goods. Insome embodiments, operation 204 is performed by a source parametercomponent the same as or similar to source parameter component 113(shown in FIG. 1 and described herein).

At an operation 206, one or more commercial sources of the givencommercial good are determined. The one or more commercial sources areincluded in the set of commercial sources. The one or more commercialsources provide information related to the given commercial good and/orinformation related to offers to sell the given commercial good. In someembodiments, operation 206 is performed by a source component the sameas or similar to source component 114 (shown in FIG. 1 and describedherein).

At an operation 208, a given commercial source is selected from the oneor more commercial sources based on the source parameters associatedwith individual ones of the one or more commercial sources. In someembodiments, operation 208 is performed by a selection component thesame as or similar to selection component 115 (shown in FIG. 1 anddescribed herein).

At an operation 210, a first presentation of a user interface iseffectuated to the user on the client computing platform. The userinterface includes a representation of the given commercial good andprovides information related to the given commercial source. In someembodiments, operation 210 is performed by a presentation component thesame as or similar to presentation component 116 (shown in FIG. 1 anddescribed herein).

The operations of method 200 presented herein are intended to beillustrative. In some embodiments, method 200 may be accomplished withone or more additional operations not described, and/or without one ormore of the operations discussed. Additionally, the order in which theoperations of method 200 are illustrated in FIG. 2 and described hereinis not intended to be limiting.

In some embodiments, method 200 may be implemented in one or moreprocessing devices (e.g., a server, a digital processor, an analogprocessor, a digital circuit designed to process information, an analogcircuit designed to process information, and/or other mechanisms forelectronically processing information). The one or more processingdevices may include one or more devices executing some or all of theoperations of method 200 in response to instructions storedelectronically on an electronic storage medium. The one or moreprocessing devices may include one or more devices configured throughhardware, firmware, and/or software to be specifically designed forexecution of one or more of the operations of method 200.

Although the system(s) and/or method(s) of this disclosure have beendescribed in detail for the purpose of illustration based on what iscurrently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments,it is to be understood that such detail is solely for that purpose andthat the disclosure is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, onthe contrary, is intended to cover modifications and equivalentarrangements that are within the spirit and scope of the appendedclaims. For example, it is to be understood that the present disclosurecontemplates that, to the extent possible, one or more features of anyembodiment can be combined with one or more features of any otherembodiment.

What is claimed is:
 1. A network-based, computer-implemented system foridentifying a commercial good or service based on an advertisement andfor selecting a commercial source of the commercial good or service,comprising: a plurality of databases in digital communication with anetwork, the plurality of databases includes a local database and aremote database, each database of the plurality of databases includes aplurality of information sets, each information set is associated with aprescribed advertisement and includes time-frequency representations ofsound from the prescribed advertisement and identification of thecorresponding good or service of the advertisement; a client computingplatform associated with at least one user, including a digitalprocessor assembly and a digital memory assembly, the client computingplatform further having the local database, the client computingplatform having computer-readable instructions, to: capture sounddigitally, via a microphone, presented to the client computing platform;convert the captured sound to a time-frequency representation on theclient computing platform; transmit the time-frequency representation toa server through a network; and compare the time-frequencyrepresentation with the information in the local database; a serverassembly in digital communication with the client computing platform viaa network, the server assembly includes at least one physical processorconfigured, via computer-readable instructions, to: receive, from theclient computing platform, the time-frequency representation; comparethe received time-frequency representation with the information sets inthe plurality of databases to determine a likelihood match (LM) valuesfrom between the received time-frequency representation and a comparabletime-frequency representation from each of the plurality of databases,such that the comparisons on the plurality of databases are initiated atsubstantially the same time, in that the remote database is locatedremote of the client computing platform; identify the commercial good orservice based on the comparison that is associated with the highest LMvalue from the comparison; determine one or more commercial sourcespertaining to the identified commercial good or service; select acommercial source from the determined one or more commercial sourcesbased on one or more pre-set parameters, the one or more pre-setparameters configured with a hierarchical and weighted disposition, theone or more pre-set parameters comprising of 1) pre-determinedgeographical area surrounding the client computing platform, 2) userdata, 3) product availability, 4) language of the advertisement, 5)user-set preferences, 6) product pricing and 7) internal systempreferences; determine a representation of the identified commercialgood or service based on the selected commercial source; effectuate afirst presentation of the representation of the commercial good orservice on a user interface of the client computing platform, providingthe ability for the at least one user to purchase the commercial good orservice within the system; track whether the at least one user purchasesthe commercial good or service within the system or redirects to alocation outside the system; and store the received time-frequencyrepresentation, the identified advertisement, the determined commercialsource, the selected commercial source, and the tracked purchase.
 2. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:determine compensation to be paid by the selected commercial source to astakeholder associated with deployment of the system in exchange for theselection.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is furtherconfigured to, responsive to receipt of first user input interactingwith the user interface of the client computing platform, effectuate aselection of the representation of the commercial good or service. 4.The system of claim 3, wherein the processor is further configured to,responsive to receipt of second user input interacting with the userinterface of the client computing platform, effectuate a purchase by theuser of the commercial good or service.
 5. The system of claim 1,wherein the processor is further configured to identify theadvertisement for the commercial good or service that has been presentedby a sound-producing device that produces both video and sound.
 6. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein sound produced by a sound-producing deviceincludes an audio stream.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the userinterface is configured to include a plurality of representations ofcommercial goods or services associated with different advertisements,wherein the plurality is limited by at least one of a predeterminedmaximum number of representations or a predetermined maximum span oftime.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is furtherconfigured to determine the at least one commercial source based on ageographical location of the user.
 9. A method for determining andselecting a commercial source of a commercial good or service from atleast one commercial source, the method comprising: storing in aplurality of databases in digital communication with a network, theplurality of databases includes a local database and a remote database,each database of the plurality of databases includes a plurality ofinformation sets, each information set is associated with a prescribedadvertisement and includes time-frequency representations of sound fromthe prescribed advertisement and identification of the correspondinggood or service of the advertisement; receiving from the clientcomputing platform, a time-frequency representation that based on soundwas captured sound digitally, presented to the client computing platformand converted the captured sound to a time-frequency representation onthe client computing platform; comparing the received time-frequencyrepresentation with the information sets in the plurality of databasesto determine a likelihood match (LM) values from between the receivedtime-frequency representation and a comparable time-frequencyrepresentation from each of the plurality of databases, such that thecomparisons on the plurality of databases are initiated at substantiallythe same time, in that the remote database is located remote of theclient computing platform; identifying the commercial good or servicebased on the comparison that is associated with the highest LM valuefrom the comparison; determining a representation of the identifiedcommercial good or service based on the selected commercial source;effectuating a first presentation of the representation of thecommercial good or service on a user interface of the client computingplatform, providing the ability for the at least one user to purchasethe commercial good or service within the system; tracking whether theat least one user to purchase the commercial good or service within thesystem or redirects to a location outside the system; and storing thereceived time-frequency representation, the identified advertisement,the determined commercial source, the selected determined source, andthe tracked purchase.
 10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:tracking whether the user purchases the commercial good or servicewithin the system or redirects to a location outside of the system. 11.The method of claim 9, further comprising: storing information thatincludes a first user profile wherein a first client computing platformis associated with the first user, and the user profiles include:information related to advertisements for commercial goods and, theadvertisements have been presented in proximity of the first user. 12.The method of claim 11, wherein the first user profile further includesdemographical information that has been obtained through usage of thesystem by the first user, wherein the request further includes ademographical parameter that is related to the demographicalinformation, and wherein determining the one or more parameters isfurther based on the demographical parameter.
 13. The method of claim 9,wherein the first user profile further includes temporal informationregarding the time of day the first user has used the system, whereinthe request further includes a temporal parameter that is related to thetemporal information, and wherein determining the one or more parametersis further based on the temporal parameter.